Understanding Papal Authority and the Unity of the Catholic Church
Summary of Headings
- Introduction: The Story of Pope Pius XIII
- The Need for Authority in the Catholic Church
- Components of Being Catholic
- Challenges of Obedience and Authority
- The Papacy's Role in Church Unity
- Trust in Christ’s Promise and the Papacy
- Concluding Thoughts and Prayers
Introduction: The Story of Pope Pius XIII
Many years ago when I was in the seminary, Father John Fullerton, who now is our district superior here in the U.S., and at that time as well, probably around 2007, when he was in his first term as district superior before he had to go to Australia and St. Mary's and a lot of other places, he came to the seminary to preach a retreat for us. And one conference, he was very late. He didn't show up for about 15 minutes. He's a major superior, so of course we're all going to be very patient and wait for him, because surely he has very important things to do being a superior. Well, he came running in about after 15 minutes and said, oh, sorry, I'm late. I was on the phone with the Pope. We all kind of looked at each other for a minute, and he said, yes, Pope Pius XIII called me to ask permission to reserve the Blessed Sacrament in his garage. He said, I don't even know where to begin with this. And Pope Pius XIII, as he was so called, I actually don't know his real name by the by, is actually the younger brother of Father Karl Pulvermacher, who took care of Our Lady of Victory for many years, a wonderful Capuchin monk. But his younger brother, during the crisis of the church in the 70s and 80s, went his own way, started a little set of a contest group who named him Pope. And then he made them cardinals so that they could confirm his election as Pope. And he chose the name Pius XIII. As I said, I don't know his real name, I just know him by that title.
The Need for Authority in the Catholic Church
I bring this up because, of course, one, we had an election recently, but two, it brings a very, a couple of very important points. If this man truly believed he was Pope, why on earth would he call a superior, not even a bishop, but a superior of a local superior of a religious order to ask permission from him for something that he should have been able to do just because of who he was? And the reason has got to be very simply, in his core, he understood that he was not the Pope. He understood that, basically, but also because despite everything, despite the spirit of rebellion which had taken him to this point, that he had rejected all the authority in the church and had rejected the papacy or the pontiffs that had come during and after Vatican II, to the point that he actually managed to get himself elected, he understood the concept of authority that he still needed to answer to somebody. This is something that is laudable because this is very important to the very core of what it means to be Catholic. We need authority. We need a principle of authority. We need somebody to whom we answer. That must be one of the most frightful things of being a Pope, is realizing that the only person above me is our Lord Jesus Christ, himself. That is terrifying. For us, if something goes wrong, I can blame my superior. I can throw it up to him and let him deal with it. Then he can throw it up to the next guy, etc. And that bureaucracy protects us and encourages us and strengthens us, but authority comes from somewhere, someone. And the Pope is where the buck stops completely. He is the last in the line here on earth before our Lord Jesus Christ himself.
Components of Being Catholic
That is an essential component of the Catholic faith. There are three things that make us Catholics, according to the Catechism. The first one is the doctrine, the teaching of the Church. This makes us Catholic and we must believe what the Church teaches, no more, no less. We are bound to believe the essential truths of the faith because of the fact that we are Catholic. No other reason. If we want to call ourselves Catholics, we are bound to that. If we do not believe that, if we preach against that, we are heretics. We are bound also to the sacraments. We must receive the sacraments. We must pursue the sacraments as the Church gives them to us. Not adapting them to our own wishes and whims and wills. Not changing them for whatever purpose. And not receiving them willy-nilly, but rather according to the laws and rules of the Church. Because these are the sacraments that our Lord Jesus Christ gave us and these are the sacraments that the Church distributes according to her rules, not according to how we wish it was. Thirdly, and those who do not do that are what are referred to as excommunicates. Excommunicated. Pulled away, taken away from the sacraments. Forbidden to receive the sacraments. Third, the third thing that makes us Catholic is submission to one central authority, the Pope, and to all the bishops in communion with him. This is an essential element of what it means to be Catholic. All three of these things. And those who do not follow that are referred to as schismatics. Those who do reject the authority of the Pope.
Challenges of Obedience and Authority
Now, we have this new Pope. What are we going to do with him? That shouldn't be a very complicated question, but unfortunately for the situation in the world and the Church, it is. But not because the question itself is complicated, but because we have complicated it. What are the conditions we're going to put upon our obedience? There should be none. So long as what he asks and what he commands is in line with the will of God and with the teaching of the Church, we must obey. Period. That simple. We obey God rather than men? Yes. But we obey man when they are speaking the word of God. God uses human instruments to preach his word, and the first and greatest instrument of his grace and of his teaching is the papacy. And this is why it's so crucial for us to have a Pope. He is the centralizing influence of the Church. He is also one of the greatest assurances of the unity and protection of the Church, because Christ's promise to us, to the Church, was based upon his office. Upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. He promises that the gates of hell will not prevail, specifically against the rock of Peter. And that is the Pope. The papacy, and the person who holds the office of the papacy. This is why the election of a Pope should be a moment of great joy for each and every Catholic. Not one of horrified anticipation, but holding our breath to see which way this one's going to go. Whether he's going to be our friend, whether he's going to celebrate the traditional mass, whether he's going to reject Vatican II, whether he's going to preach St. Thomas Aquinas, whether he's going to politically ally himself with Trump, whatever. All those things are extremely secondary. They're essential insofar as they are the Catholic teaching. Not all those things I just mentioned are Catholic teaching, just so you know. I'm not equating Trump with Catholic teaching. But all of those things are, not, how should I put this, these are essential aspects of what the Pope should do, but his papacy does not depend upon them. He doesn't lose his power if he preaches modernism. He still has his power, he's just not exercising it. It's a dangerous road to go down where we reject the whole thing, just because the person holding the office is repugnant, or heretical, or problematic, or wrong thinking, or a scandal. Because that is effectively the dangerous road we go down. This is why set of a contest groups inevitably splinter. This is why groups that have fallen away from the Catholic Church rejecting the central authority of the papacy inevitably fall apart. They cannot maintain themselves without that central necessary authority.
The Papacy's Role in Church Unity
The papacy is essential to our salvation. It is the source of grace. Christ is the one who gives grace, but it is through his church, specifically the rock, Peter. This is why in the Divine Comedy and in other traditions, Saint Peter is the one standing at the gate. He's not just the one who lets people into heaven, but he's also the one who lets grace out of heaven down to earth. He is the one who welcomes people in because he is the one who has been given the keys to the kingdom of heaven in every possible way. But he is also the one who opens the gates of the floodgates of grace to let them into the world. He is the one by whom Christ preaches his word. He is his vicar. He is his representative, his ultimate, most perfect, most absolute representative here on earth. But he is also just human. A frightening and terrible authority, a frightening and terrible concept for us to consider. The papacy is essential. It is crucial for the salvation of souls, and so therefore it cannot be defeated. Christ will never let it be destroyed, which is one reason why we cannot fall into the skepticism and doubt and fear and so many other difficulties that we have with what the popes do. Whatever this pope's decisions are going to be, however his attitude toward tradition, however he, whatever he's going to do in regards to the Society of Saint Pius X or whatever else, will not change a thing. Because the church will continue. The doctrine of the church will continue to be preached. The one true mass will continue to be said. The church will still be one. One holy, Catholic and apostolic, because that is who she is. That is the very nature of the Bride of Christ. The mystical body of Christ. It is his, not ours. Not the world's. Not the pope's. He is only its vicar. He is only its head. But Christ is the one who is the reigning king of the church. And he is the, and the Holy Ghost is the lifeblood of the church. Not us. Our Lady is the one who holds the treasure box of graces. We are just simply the instruments. Even the pope himself is a mere instrument. A powerful, essential one. But that's all he is. So let's not attribute to him some sort of extraordinary independence from God. That's what Saint Peter says in the epistle today. Don't let freedom become a cloak for evil. Because of the fact that he is free to act how he wants, he should behave in a way that screams that he is the vicar of Christ. And in order for that to happen, he has to be possessed of a humility and a virtue that is second to none in this world. Surely we can pray that he has that. We can trust that God is not going to abandon his church, because he has promised it, and he cannot break his promises. We can know that the bark of Peter, the, the, the... rock of Peter is not going to shatter anytime soon because Christ pronounced it and so it must be so. We can have confidence that the Catholic Church will survive horrible pontificates, terrible scandals, schisms, heresies, everything else that goes on. We know this because Christ has made it so. He is the one who is in charge, not us. He is the one who commands, not even the Pope commands. He is the instrument and only the instrument. Let's not make him more than what he is. But neither let us diminish him and make him subject to what we think he should be because that also would be folly.
Trust in Christ’s Promise and the Papacy
That's the paradox of poor Pius XIII. He understood he needed to be subject to somebody, which is why he called Father Fullerton our superior. Our superior, not even his. I mean, a priest and asked permission for something because at the core of who we are, we understand that. But at the same time, the reason that he was in this absurd position of proclaiming himself Pope in Montana was because he could not see Christ and the authority of Christ in the Church. And so he created it and put it upon himself. That is not how this works. That is not how Christ established the Church. And that is not how our faith should be based. We need to make sure our faith is absolute in our Lord Jesus Christ and in the Catholic Church. Not in ourselves, not in our own judgments, not in our own excuses. Unfortunately, one of the consequences, or sorry, one of the principles of why so many people have chosen to reject the papacy in the last years is because they do not want an authority above them. It is an act of rebellion, much more so than it is any theological considerations. And in doing so, unfortunately, what that causes is splintering. Obedience creates unity. Submission, although again, careful, I am not saying submission to everything. Not a material absolute submission. We reject what is wrong and against the word of Christ. We still obey God rather than men, etc. But we do not allow ourselves to become the judges of everything else either. Because that is not our role. That is not what the Catholic Church has given us to do. We are the subjects to the Church, not the other way around. One person told me that one of the reasons that they stopped going to the site of a church was because they came to the realization, thankfully, that there would never be anybody Catholic enough for them to accept as their superior. And unfortunately, that is exactly the case. It's supposed to be a temporary situation. The Pope is not here. He's not around. Sede vacante, the chair being empty, should be just for the moment where they are electing a new Pope. It is a state that should be abominable to a Catholic soul. Not a habitual state. That's why we should rejoice when a Pope is elected. We should be filled with joy, even if also, yes, humanly speaking, we're filled with trepidation. We don't know where this is going to go. Who knows? Conservative, liberal, American, Peruvian, or in the case of my prior, he seems to think he's French. Of course, he thinks everything's French. Who knows? Republican, Democrat, doesn't matter. It really does not identify what he is. He is the person who sits on the throne of St. Peter himself, and that is where our faith is based. Not because of the person who sits on it, but because of who founded it and who promised absolute, inconquerable, perfect victory through it.
Concluding Thoughts and Prayers
Our salvation depends on that rock upon which the church is built, so therefore we must give ourselves entirely over to it. We must dedicate ourselves to pray for the sanctification of this Pope, and for every bishop, cardinal, priest, and faithful in the church. We all need that prayer. If we want a good Pope, a lot of it is going to redound to us to say prayers for him. Salvation, souls depends on it. Pray that he may be able to live according to his office. Don't look so much at all the gossip and rumors floating around about him, and just focus on saying a prayer for his soul that he be a good Pope and that he bring souls to Christ. Because that is the essence of what it is we're supposed to do. What he's supposed to do. Read again the epistle of today. That is exactly what St. Peter is saying. We must not be the scandalizers. We must be people who bring people to Christ through our example, through our words, through our teachings, and through the great works that we are supposed to do, especially as good Catholics, with the sacraments and the benefits of the virtues that God himself has offered to us and shown to us.
So therefore, let us pray for him, pray for the church, pray for our own souls, pray for each other. Ask God for help in this time where there's so much confusion, and find peace of soul in the promise and the guarantee, of our Lord Jesus Christ, that through the papacy, we can find eternal happiness by pursuing his line, of pursuing his sacraments, of living in his church, because it is all about him, while we are just simply the invitees, we are the ones who are invited to participate, we are the ones who are able and allowed to come and partake with everything, and we are the ones who are called to be, to accompany him eternally in heaven.